HRW prees release: Rohingyas

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ASIA


FOR RELEASE 00:01 GMT 
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 13, 1996

For Further Information:
Zunetta Liddell (London)      (44) 171-713-1995 [w]
Sidney Jones (New York)       (212) 972-8405 ex. 290 [w]


               BURMA: PROTECTION NEEDED FOR MUSLIM  REFUGEES

     In The Rohingya Muslims - Ending a Cycle of Exodus?,
released today, Human Rights Watch/Asia documents the
repatriation of more than 200,000 Burmese Muslims from
Bangladesh to their home state in northern Burma, and
concludes that the arrival of an estimated 10,000 new refugees
by the end of May 1996 raised important questions about the
role of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
(UNHCR) and about the promotion of  voluntary  return to
countries with particularly abusive governments.
     On September 3, 1996, the Bangladesh Foreign Minister,
Abdud Samad Azad, started a three day visit to Rangoon to
discuss, among other things, the repatriation of nearly 50,000
Burmese Muslim refugees remaining out of the 270,000 who fled
to Bangladesh in 1992.  But even as these discussions took
place, new asylum-seekers were fleeing Burma. In the week of
August 26, two refugees reportedly died after they stepped on
landmines as they tried to cross the border into Bangladesh. 
On April 20, fifteen others drowned when their boat capsized
while being towed across the Naf river back to Burma by
Bangladesh border guards. The cycle of exodus is clearly not
over.     In February and March 1996, Human Rights Watch/Asia
interviewed some of the early arrivals in the new influx of
refugees to Bangladesh and found that forced labor, lack of freedom
of movement, and the forcible disappearance of family members
triggered their exodus.  The 34-page report, based on those
interviews and other data collected since then, documents a pattern
of continuing discrimination against the Muslims in Arakan state,
from the denial of citizenship to forced relocations and forced
labor.    

     The UNHCR signed agreements with the governments of Bangladesh
and Burma in May and November 1993, giving the UNHCR a role in
repatriation on both sides of the border. The repatriation of
thousands of Burmese has taken place in the context of developments
within the UNHCR, which has seen a shift from providing refugee
relief to promoting voluntary repatriation as the most durable
solution to refugee problems.  

     UNHCR officials and the UNHCR annual report have cited the
Rohingya repatriation as a success and vindication of this new
position.  Human Rights Watch/Asia strongly questions the degree to
which the rights of the refugees have been protected in the
process. A draft of Human Rights Watch/Asia s findings was sent to
the U.N. High Commissioner, Mrs. Sadako Ogata in Geneva; comments
from her office have been incorporated in the final text.  However,
differences of opinion and interpretation between Human Rights
Watch and the UNHCR inevitably remain, notably on the issue of the
voluntariness of the repatriation at different times. 

     There is no dispute that the first stage of the repatriation,
between September 1992 and the end of 1993, was forced.  At the
time, the UNHCR was not present in Burma and had no agreement with
the Burmese government to provide assistance to returnees.  Even
more seriously, while the UN agency was present in the camps in
Bangladesh, it could not prevent major abuses, including beatings
and the denial of food rations by camp authorities directed at
forcing the refugees back to Burma. 

     The second repatriation effort took place after the UNHCR had
established a limited field presence in Arakan state in early 1994.
It began promoting mass repatriation on the grounds that the
situation in Arakan was now conducive to return, and it gave up the
hard-won right to interview each refugee individually to ensure
that she or he was returning voluntarily. Human Rights Watch/Asia
examines the extent to which the refugees have been able to make
fully informed decisions about their return, based on knowledge of
their right to request continued asylum and objective information
about conditions in Arakan.  It also looks at various elements of
the reintegration program and the consequences of the UNHCR having
as its implementing agency or government partner an ostensibly
civilian agency that in some parts of Arakan is under the direct
command of the military. 

     Human Rights Watch/Asia applauds the UNHCR s efforts to work
toward preventing refugee outflows by promoting human rights, but
notes that the UNHCR has in many cases avoided addressing human
rights concerns in Arakan. In particular, the UNHCR must ensure
that it does not neglect its responsibilities to the refugees in a
situation where there is a conflict of interest: where the need to
publicize and advocate against continued abuses takes second place
to the need to maintain good relations with both the country of
origin and the host country. The UNHCR s policy since June 1996 of
discouraging and reportedly assisting the government to prevent
possible asylum seekers from leaving Burma is a cause for great
concern.  

      In the final analysis, the refugee problem will not be solved
until and unless the Rohingyas are recognized as citizens by the
Burmese government and granted the rights they are currently
denied,  said Zunetta Liddell, Human Rights Watch/Asia s London-
based research associate.  They will remain a vulnerable group,
always ready to flee if the alternative is to suffer further
abuse.   
     Human Rights Watch/Asia recommends that the Burmese government
(SLORC, or State Law and Order Restoration Council) immediately
amend or repeal the 1982 Citizenship Act to abolish its over-
burdensome requirements for citizens in a manner which has
discriminatory effects on racial or ethnic minorities, and to grant
the Muslims of Arakan State full citizenship and accompanying
rights, in particular the right to freedom of movement.  The SLORC
should also cease the practice of forced labor in Arakan State and
across Burma in compliance with the 1930 ILO Convention on Forced
Labor which the government signed in 1955, and it should permit the
new UN Special Rapporteur to Burma to visit the area on his mission
later this year, and he should be guaranteed free and confidential
access to residents.

     Human Rights Watch/Asia also urges the Bangladesh government
of Sheikh Hasina to state unequivocally that it will permit
individuals to seek asylum. In doing so, it should provide
objective information to refugees on which they can make an
informed decision to return and should ensure that refugees are
fully aware of their right to protection from refoulement if they
can establish a well-founded fear of persecution if they are
returned. Bangladesh is obliged to give all asylum seekers the
opportunity to claim refugee status. The Bangladesh government
should demonstrate its commitment to international human rights
standards by becoming a party to the 1951 Convention Relating to
the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol. Even without having
become a party to the Convention, Bangladesh should fulfill  its
obligations with regard to the principle of non-refoulement which
is customary international law.

     Finally, Human Rights Watch/Asia calls on the UNHCR to conduct
a thorough evaluation of its policy of promoting mass repatriation
to Arakan State at a time when the situation there has not
substantially improved. Under current circumstances, if the
conditions in Arakan State deteriorate, UNHCR should not tolerate
violations by the Bangladesh government of the right to seek asylum
or the principle of non-refoulement.  The UNHCR should also
reassess its classification of Burmese Muslims newly arrived in
Bangladesh from Burma as  economic migrants  and seek assurances
from Bangladesh that they will not be returned against their will
without having had the opportunity to apply for refugee status. 


Human Rights Watch/Asia
Human Rights Watch is a nongovernmental organization established in 1978 to
monitor and promote the observance of internationally recognized human rights in
Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and among the signatories of the
Helsinki accords. Kenneth Roth is the executive director; Cynthia Brown is the
program director.  Robert L. Bernstein is the chair of the board and Adrian W.
DeWind is vice chair.  Its Asia division was established in 1985 to monitor and
promote the observance of internationally recognized human rights in Asia. 
Sidney Jones is the executive director; Mike Jendrzejczyk is the Washington
director; Robin Munro is the Hong Kong director; Patricia Gossman is a senior
researcher; Jeannine Guthrie is NGO Liaison; Dinah PoKempner is Counsel; Zunetta
Liddell is a research associate; Joyce Wan is a Henry R. Luce Fellow; Paul Lall
and Olga Nousias are associates; Mickey Spiegel is a research consultant.  Andrew
J. Nathan is chair of the advisory committee and Orville Schell is vice chair.

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